Assessment of Microplastics in Roadside Suspended Dust from Urban and Rural Environment of Nagpur, India
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RESEARCH PAPER
Assessment of Microplastics in Roadside Suspended Dust from Urban and Rural Environment of Nagpur, India Vellora Veetil Narmadha1 · Jithin Jose1 · Sakshi Patil2,3 · Mohd. Ozair Farooqui2 · Bathmanabhan Srimuruganandam1 · Sivanesan Saravanadevi2,3 · Kannan Krishnamurthi2,3 Received: 13 July 2020 / Revised: 2 September 2020 / Accepted: 25 September 2020 © University of Tehran 2020
Abstract Contamination from microplastics is a growing concern around the globe that materialized over the last few decades. Road dust is one of the main contributors of microplastics in an urban environment and presence of microplastics can be a major detriment to health of urban population. The present study focuses on the presence, quantification, and identification of microplastics in the ambient air. Coarse (PM10) and fine (PM2.5) particulates from urban and rural sites of Nagpur, India is collected using high volume air samplers for weekdays and weekends for a period of 24 h. Samples are collected in Polytetrafluoroethylene filter papers and are analyzed using a stereomicroscope, fluorescence microscopic study, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. Fluorescence microscopy is conducted using Nile Red staining for analyzing the presence of microplastics and studying its shapes and colors. An average total abundance ranging from 50 to 120 particles/day is observed. Fibers are the dominant shape, and transparent/white is the dominant color observed in all four sites. FTIR analysis is conducted for identification of the chemical composition of particles in Attenuated Reflectance mode. The polymers identified in the region are low-density polyethylene, rayon, rubber fiber, polystyrene, polyaniline, polyolefin, and chlorinated polyvinyl chloride. This research identified significant contamination of the study region from microplastics and highlights the necessity of performing a comprehensive health risk analysis of the study region to examine the impact of microplastics on urban health. Article Highlights • PM10 and PM2.5 samples are collected from urban and rural environment of Nagpur, India • Microplastic particles collected from particulate samples are classified based on shape and colour Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s41742-020-00283-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. V. V. Narmadha and Sakshi Patil contributed equally to this work. * Bathmanabhan Srimuruganandam [email protected]
Kannan Krishnamurthi [email protected]
Vellora Veetil Narmadha [email protected]
1
Jithin Jose [email protected]
School of Civil Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, Tamil Nadu 632 014, India
2
Health and Toxicity Cell (EHC), CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nehru Marg, Nagpur 440020, India
3
Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, U.P., India
Sakshi Patil [email protected] Mohd
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